INTERVIEW: Girli @ Gorilla, Manchester

In the cramped corridor of Gorilla’s concert venue, we had a little chat with Girli about pink, being powerful and having a set in Electrowerkz that looked like her bedroom.

Why is pink your theme?

Girli: I don’t know, I think it is just influenced by a lot of the music and culture I started getting into when I started wearing pink. I was really into Japanese culture and stuff. I just vibed with it. I used to wear loads of different colours and then I just started being like, “Maybe I should just go with pink?”. Also I think pink is so often seen as a symbol of weakness. Because it’s seen as y’know, just really for girls. When I actually just want to make it powerful and badass. So that’s why I wear it, yeah.

What is a typical day/week for you?

Girli: Oh jeez, what, just in life in general? It just depends, it’s always different. I guess that’s why I love doing music really. Like if we’re on tour, it’s like different city everyday and party vibes and having fun. Then back home in London, it’s just like lots of studio and then I skate alot and just get out and party a lot. I have massive FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) of being out, so I get out all the time. But yeah, that’s the vibe.

What’s the best and worst thing about being in the music industry?

Girli: I think the best thing is that you just get to perform and basically just sell your diary entry, like you get to just do what you want. But I guess the bad thing is it’s like, you’re under the scrutiny of so many people and people are going to chat s**t about you, so you have to kind of detach yourself; you can’t take it personally. I guess that’s the hard thing really.

What do you think you would be doing if you weren’t doing music?

Girli: I think about this a lot, I think I’d probably be doing film or at. Yeah, I think I’d be involved in arts some way. So yeah.

What is the message you portray with your music, your appearance, your style?

Girli: I think I just wanna portray, ‘Stop giving a f**k’. Y’know just like stand up for what’s right and spread love and positivity and all that vibes. Yeah, them kind of vibes.

Best gig you’ve ever done?

Girli: Probably the show we just did in London at Electrowerkz, that was insane. The set was built to look like my bedroom and it was mental. There was a ball-pit, crowd-surfing, moshing. All my loved ones were there and some pretty awesome people and fans were there. So that was really cool.

What gave you the idea for Girli.fm?

Girli: I just have a load of demos that I didn’t necessarily want to release as songs on their own but I really wanted people to hear them and I just wanted people to get to know my personality and my sense of humour. Like I just love sitting around and noodling around on Logic and producing stuff and so I just made Girli.fm as like a past-time and then it was like, ‘Hey!’, we could release this. I thought instead of doing like a mixtape thing, it would be fun to do something that’s just different.

Why did you choose the name Girli?

Girli: I think it just like represented to me like a strong woman, like Blondie the band. Debbie Harry said that they called themselves that because she was always cat-called ‘Blondie’ in the street. And she was like “F**k you, I’m gonna take that name that you give me and turn it into something powerful.’ I think in general i you say something is girly, it has really negative and I’m like, “F**k that, Girli is powerful.”

Top 3 favourite artists of all time?

Girli: Oh my gosh, that is such a hard question. David Bowie, probably like Arctic Monkeys, G R I M E S. Like she’s just insane.

Favourite drink on a night out?

Girli: I thought you were going to be like, “What’s your favourite colour?”, I wa gunna be like, “Well..”. Favourite go-to drink on a night out is a rum and coke or Buckfast.